Rewarding Strategies to Retain your Employees
Did you know that one-third of UK employees often think about looking for a job at another organisation? While some staff turnover is expected, it’s always important to keep an eye out for risks that may cause employees to leave your business. This is particularly critical in today’s job market, where one in five employers anticipate problems filling job vacancies and finding the right employees.
Retention strategy planning and implementation is the best way to resolve this issue. With the right processes in place, you can attract the most suitable employees and retain top talent at your company. Both of which will help drive motivation, productivity and business success. Sounds good, right?
In this blog, we’re going to explore everything you need to know about HR retention strategies, including what they are, and top ways to implement them in your company. Get ready to minimise turnover and boost your employees!
A retention strategy is a plan that businesses develop and implement to reduce employee turnover and increase engagement and retention. While it’s normal for companies to experience some turnover as employees naturally come and go, creating a staff retention strategy is recommended to minimise the amount of voluntary turnover. The main reason is that it’s more costly to hire and train new employees than it is to develop your current staff. Even so, it should go without saying that as a business, it’s in your best interest to support your people and provide them with the training and development opportunities they need to reach their full potential.
WHAT IS A RETENTION STRATEGY?
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF WORKFORCE RETENTION STRATEGIES?
There’s so much more to employee retention strategies than just getting people to stay at your business for longer. By implementing a successful strategy, you’ll not only benefit your employees by ensuring they have development opportunities and an uplifting work environment, but you’ll also see a positive impact on your business.
Here are just some of the benefits of work retention strategies:
- Reduced staff turnover
- Lower hiring and training costs
- Increased employee loyalty
- Boosted company culture
- Higher employee productivity levels
- Improved morale and satisfaction
- Stronger relationships between staff
- Better brand reputation
- Enhanced customer experiences
- Less stress and burnout
And many more!
WHY ARE EMPLOYEES LEAVING?
Employees leave job roles for many reasons. However worryingly, in 75% of cases, the employer could have prevented this from happening. So how do you fix the issue? Well, to minimise employee turnover, you need to understand the reasons why people leave their jobs and take action.
With that in mind, here are the top cited reasons employees give during exit interviews:
- Low salary
- Minimal career progression
- Non-competitive benefits package
- Poor work-life balance
- Lack of rewards and recognition
- Feeling overworked
- Poor management
- Toxic company culture
- Low job satisfaction
As an employer, you’re likely to find out why employees leave during exit interviews. But rather than waiting till this happens, look for patterns of disengagement and use those insights to make positive changes. It’s also worth keeping an eye on the current job market and workplace culture in general so you can identify any changes that may impact your people and your business. Take wellbeing benefits as an example. Once considered a trendy ‘nice to have’ for businesses, they’re now an expectation for many employees – and rightly so in our eyes!
12 EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES
Want to hold onto top talent within your company? Or increase employee loyalty in general? It’s time to act! We’ve listed twelve top talent retention strategies below that’ll help you boost your workplace culture and employee job satisfaction. In turn, this will help you keep your employees happy and give them plenty of reasons to stick around. So, let’s take a look at how to make this happen…
Your business’s success is driven by your team, meaning it relies on you choosing the right employees. Retention strategy planning should involve looking at every stage of the employee journey, starting with your hiring process. You need to ensure potential employees not only understand the job role requirements, but they also know about the company culture and how they can get immersed in it. By clearly sharing what your business is like from the start, you’ll naturally attract people who will fit in well and retain them in the future.
1. CREATE A FOOLPROOF HIRING PROCESS
Some say money isn’t everything, but competitive wages are a crucial part of an effective HR retention strategy. It’s important to ensure that you’re paying your employees salaries that reflect their skills, experience, location and industry. Not only will this help ensure they feel valued, but it’ll help drive engagement and motivation. If that wasn’t beneficial enough, offering competitive wages also helps lower turnover and hiring costs as people are less likely to jump ship in favour of a job that pays more.
2. OFFER COMPETITIVE WAGES
When people feel supported and valued in the workplace, they’re more likely to develop a strong sense of loyalty towards their company. That’s why introducing regular training and development for your employees is such a great way to increase retention. By investing in your employees, you’ll show them you value their skills and care about their career progression, which will in turn help you develop a motivated, confident and committed workforce. Similarly, introducing mentors will boost motivation as they keep people focussed while sharing expertise – again things that will drive retention.
3. INTRODUCE TRAINING AND MENTORSHIP PROGRAMMES
Good, open communication is a key driver of effective staff retention strategies. This has never been truer as companies have shifted towards hybrid and remote work. Regardless of where your team members are based, they should be kept in the loop and given opportunities to share feedback, ideas and concerns. This will ensure they feel supported in their roles and part of the company culture, which will build trust.
4. ENCOURAGE OPEN COMMUNICATION
Many employees now expect remote or hybrid working policies, so not having some flexible working policies in place may put you at a disadvantage and increase employee turnover. So, it’s worth thinking about how you can introduce options like shorter working hours, remote options or flexitime. Giving your people the flexibility to manage their own workload and hours of work is another great way to build trust, increase morale, boost productivity and reduce stress within your team.
5. IMPLEMENT FLEXIBLE WORKING POLICIES
More employees than ever cite a healthy work-life balance as a deciding factor when choosing to stay at their company or find a new job, making it a key aspect of effective staff retention strategies. As an employer, it’s important to provide your people with the processes and support they need to strike a good balance between work and home. Whether it’s introducing flexible hours, childcare assistance or wellbeing days, there are plenty of ways to encourage healthy habits that will give your employees something to smile about.
6. PROMOTE A WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Workplaces that are respectful of people’s races, backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations will attract and retain a wider, more diverse group of talented people who will be a better fit for the company culture and job roles. It’s important that employees feel represented, heard, and comfortable within a working environment. By championing diversity and inclusion, you’ll support your people better and build a culture that makes them want to stay with your company long-term.
7. CHAMPION DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
An uplifting, healthy workplace culture is critical for retaining employees as people are more likely to stay at companies where they feel included and supported. So, one of the best ways to lower turnover is to ensure you create regular opportunities for employees to connect with their colleagues. Introducing team-building activities, work trips and social events will contribute to this, as well as having an online space where individuals can connect and celebrate each other. By encouraging your team members to get to know each other better, you’ll help them build stronger bonds and strengthen collaboration.
8. CREATE A POSITIVE COMPANY CULTURE
It should go without saying, but as an employer, you should be actively trying to reduce burnout within your team. It’s your responsibility to take care of your employees and help them reach their full potential. That’s why reducing employee burnout is so important as it affects people’s mood, productivity and overall wellbeing.
The most common causes of burnout are unfair treatment, unrealistic expectations and workload, poor communication, and lack of managerial support. By providing clear, open communication, improving management and boosting your company culture, you can reduce employee burnout and create an environment that helps people thrive.
9. REDUCE EMPLOYEE BURNOUT
Many employees now see a strong benefits offering as a must-have and a key deciding factor when looking at whether to stay at their company or move to a new role. By boosting your company perks, you can stand out against competitors, re-engage current employees and increase morale.
There are plenty of meaningful employee benefits to offer your people, including:
- Powerful discounts
- Festive bonuses
- Health Cash Plan
- Discounted gym memberships
- 24/7 GP helpline
- Flexible work arrangements
Take the time to choose a variety of benefits that will resonate with your team, and you’ll see a positive impact on retention.
10. PUT TOGETHER AN UNRIVALLED BENEFITS PACKAGE
When people feel their best in all areas of life, they’re more likely to be productive, engaged and committed at work. You can help your employees boost their emotional, physical and financial wellbeing with a range of powerful wellbeing benefits. Whether it’s a 24/7 support helpline, stress management resources, salary sacrifice schemes, or an Employee Assistance Programme, there are plenty of ways to boost your staff, and in turn, deliver an impactful employee retention plan.
11. OFFER WELLNESS INITIATIVES
Your people deserve to be rewarded and recognised for the amazing things they do. By delivering reward and recognition tools that highlight their achievements and give them thoughtful boosts, you’ll cultivate a culture of appreciation. And you guessed it, this will positively impact your people and your business! When individuals feel valued, they’re more likely to work harder, engage with your company and collaborate with their peers.
12. RECOGNISE AND REWARD EMPLOYEES
THE CURRENT EMPLOYEE RETENTION LANDSCAPE IN 2024
Employee turnover has increased globally over the past year, rising from 18% in 2023 to approximately 20% in 2024. There are several factors that have impacted this increase, including job stability due to company cutbacks, lack of wellbeing support and minimal career progression. Across the board, companies are noticing that employees place more value on wellness benefits, financial rewards, training and flexible working arrangements. This has put pressure on businesses to step up their policies and offerings to retain their employees and attract new talent.
To add to the challenge, companies need to factor in employee preferences and expectations – especially if their workforce is varied in age. For example, more employees are seeing the benefits of perks like wellbeing support and flexitime, but Gen Z are more likely to expect their company to provide them. This could be a deal-breaker for younger, talented individuals who you’d like to hire. So, it’s time to get to know your people and identify the talent retention ideas that would best suit their needs!
EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGY: HOW BOOSTWORKS CAN HELP
From lifting your people up and helping them thrive in all areas of life to improving business performance, there are plenty of benefits to implementing employee retention ideas. But as with all these things, the challenge is knowing where to start, right?
We can help with that! The most important part of a retention strategy is ensuring that your employees feel seen, supported and valued within your company. This sets the foundations for a healthy work environment which will drive productivity, engagement and motivation. By focusing on boosting your team, you’ll create a culture which naturally attracts talent and lowers turnover.
At Boostworks, we collaborate with a huge range of businesses to deliver tailored reward and recognition solutions that lift people up and celebrate their greatness. We can help you make sure your team feel truly valued, which as we mentioned, is the starting point for boosting your business. Want to find out more? Book a demo and see how our solutions work for yourself!
